there's our catastrophe

Apr 25

my friend M__ recently appeared in some photos for a poster campaign against gendered harassment and violence

and his female friends were the ones who had to point out “that’s great, but make sure you know exactly what they’re going to say and if you’re comfortable with it, also wear a disguise or people might have a kneejerk negative reaction to you, haha — no, seriously, switch up your look”. which was easy enough to do and I think that’s a fair enough thing to be concerned about, nobody wants people to have a gut reaction of “hey, it’s that gross guy” to them

what I’m kind of mad about is that they had to beg him to do it at the last minute because they couldn’t find any other dudes who were willing

it’s just such a stark and literal example of men being more concerned with looking pro-feminist than being pro-feminist

Jan 15

More from the blog A Glasglow Sex Worker on how intrinsically fucked the Nordic end demand model is--couldn't even finish reading this, the violation that Swedish sex workers routinely go through was so vile

everythingbutharleyquinn:

for every “feminist” out there who defends the swedish/nordic model.

Pop quiz! You are a sex worker living in a country that has adopted the Nordic model. Which of these forms of evidence-gathering would you prefer? You may pick one.

a. Condom-possession. Prepare to have your safer-sex precautions produced in court as evidence that a commercial sex act was on the cards.

b. The police non-consensually video your sex life. Y’know, clandestinely.

c. The police conduct an intimate physical examination. (Does this feel a bit like sexual assault? Shush there, you with your false consciousness. Your consensual sex life is rape; whereas this is for your own good.)

This is of course a trick question, because generally in jurisdictions that have adopted the Nordic model, all of these forms of evidence-gathering are used. (There’s a fun add-on to option (a) which is that, in Sweden, even distributing condoms can be seen as “encouraging prostitution”. Dodillet and Ostergren observe that this “makes it difficult for the authorities to utilise harm reduction strategies” [p4], which, well, yeah.)

If I raise these issues with someone who supports the Nordic model, I mostly get ignored, or accused of ‘scaremongering’. (Let word go forth: the new feminist response to a woman who is telling you about her fears of sexual assault, is to accuse her of ‘scaremongering’. #ibelieveher, unless she’s a sex worker or our politics differ, apparently.) So where’ve I got these preposterous ideas from?

Well, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland responded to Trish Godman’s 2010 Bill by expressing “concerns” over whether or not “intimate forensic medical examinations” (p1) would be justifiable. (I think it’s safe to say that the official ACPOS response to a parliamentary consultation is going to be the nicer, more moderate face of law enforcement – so much more friendly than the police officer who recently responded to a sex worker trying to report a rape by saying, “what you did was prostitution”, and logging “no crime”. Those are the people who’ll be translating ACPOS’ “concerns” about “justifiableness” into day-to-day conviction-hunting. I’d have concerns.)

Let’s see what happens where these laws are already in place.

Women who sell sex in Sweden are routinely filmed without their consent while engaging in sex acts (p4) – as if that’s somehow not massively fucked up a huge violation; more on this in a bit – while sex workers in Norway report that the new law makes them feel criminalised (subsection 3.3.2). In Chicago, the ‘end demand’ approach that claims to target clients sees the arrest of a disproportionately large number of transgender women of colour – who are then mis-gendered and accused of buying sex. (A particularly vile irony, given how frequently trans* women of colour are harassed in the street by law enforcement. “A report on Latin trans women in Los Angeles … found that two thirds of participants received verbal harassment from police officers. Twenty-one percent reported physical assault and twenty-three percent sexual assault“, and often this harassment is premised on the assumption that they must be selling sex. Racist trans*misogyny: where you really can’t fucking win.)

In this study, women and girls in the sex trade tell researchers that the police are the number one source of violence and abuse, which isn’t that surprising given that this comes from the same state (Illinois) where ‘end demand’ campaigners succeeded in increasing the penalties for the buyers … oh, and sellers – of sex. Victim-centred! Back in Europe, police forces in Sweden and Norway have reported that the laws against clients have made gathering evidence against abusers more difficult – possibly because the Swedish and Norwegian states are so keen to ‘rescue’ (migrant) sex workers, that when these victims of patriarchy are discovered, they’re deported so quickly that their clients haven’t even come to trial (p4). Meagan Morris, a researcher specialising in law enforcement and the sex industry, notes that even supposedly “victim-centred” approaches tend to disproportionately hurt women.

Yes, the police and feminist (ha) campaigners are two different entities, and women’s groups can’t control what the police will do. But since that’s the case, it might behove those who support the Nordic model to pause and think before arguing for legislation that bestows further police power over demographics that experience multiple forms of marginalisation – much of the sharp end of which is already at the hands of the police. Actually, though, I don’t think that arguing for these laws comes from a place of privileged ignorance – I think its worse than that, and here’s two examples of why coming up next.

Let Meagan Morris’ findings about the disproportionate hurt to women even in supposedly “victim-centred” contexts steep in your mind a little, as we refresh the content of the Skarhead report (Sweden’s assessment of the success of the law). Particularly the bit where sex workers reporting that the law has increased stigma against them is registered as a good thing (“for people who are still being exploited in prostitution, the above negative effects of the ban that they describe must be viewed as positive” [p23]) … because stigma might discourage people from entering the sex industry. (‘Stig-ma, noun. That thing which hurts us, by legitimising and perpetuating the view that we are less than human, degraded, or dirty. Strongly linked to violence’.) ‘Victim-centred’ approaches seem to really lovestigma, actually, as this report from a ‘John School’ illustrates: “presenters cautioned participants that ‘drug addicted prostitutes… have stabbed their clients with AIDS infected needles‘”. Thanks, ‘end demand’ campaigners! That’s not problematic at all!

To return briefly to the issue of Scandinavian police forces clandestinely filming sex acts, I think what really fucking grinds my gears about this one is that proponents of the Nordic model often think that all pornography is violence. But apparently filming sex workers – without their consent – is fine. It seems like a microcosm of their whole analysis: in their rush to label everything as abuse, they end up causing real abuse to be perpetrated in the pursuit of prosecuting consenting sex. And also sex workers don’t matter.

I think I’ve shown fairly clearly that there are lots of good reasons why sex workers don’t trust the police, even in jurisdictions that are ostensibly “victim-centred” or allegedly focused on “targeting the client”, and therefore why the onus needs to be on those who want to eradicate to the sex industry through the intervention of the state to show they’ve thought about these issues. Y’know. At all. (I’m not the only sex worker in the UK to not trust the police, either – the numbers from National Ugly Mugs show that while 99% of reportees are happy to have their report shared anonymously with other sex workers, only 27% allow their information to be passed on to the police. Prohibitionist campaigners in Scotland wouldn’t know this, of course, because none of them could be bothered to come to the UK NSWP meeting in Aberdeen for the Ugly Mugs training session. As I said on twitter, giving a fuck so much more is the slogan of the revolution.) And that being concerned that the police will abuse their power isn’t exactly ‘scaremongering’, since it happens everywhere, all. the. time.

In a sense, this is a slightly ancillary issue: most of the terrible things that the Nordic model does to sex workers are achieved by increasing our desperation and thus our vulnerability to those who pose as clients. I’m just very struck by how little meaningful response I get when I bring this stuff up. I almost kind of want someone to tell me to my face that they think this kind of police power, and these methods of evidence-gathering, are okay. Because at least that would entail acknowledging that this stuff happens, and I actually think that pretending it doesn’t – that it isn’t even a possibility – is more horrible to hear than that you sort-of deserve it (in a ‘collateral-damage-in-the-wider-battle against patriarchy’, kind-of way).

Like, be proud of your politics, and their effects, then. Go on. Defend them. I’m listening. I’ve been listening for a while, but apparently no one’s got anything to say on this.

Dec 16

I watched this last night. jennifer’s body is really close to being an amazing movie, but it has a couple of catastrophic failures of nerve/nuance/script editing, so it’s not. like, I was really put off by the opening scene of Amanda Seyfried punching a middle-aged black woman orderly, and by the casual murder of a stock “foreign exchange student” character

but it’s basically a film about how dudes in indie bands are in league with Satan and inflict horrific violence on women, yet become everybody’s heroes, creating a situation where the people who know what they did are alienated and ostracised

also about how your failure to protect your friends or have compassion for their scary and socially disruptive trauma has really serious consequences

and those are two things I wish there was more cultural exploration of

(via idreamdof-paradise-deactivated2)

Dec 9

this is a post about walking home alone at night and the fear of violence.

It’s kind of late and I just got home. I walked from my friends’ place: not far, maybe twenty minutes, alone, in my cheap plastic heels. I like walking and I like to leave the instant I feel like it. My dear friend offered to walk me home, I demurred, she pushed, I got slightly pissed off, I got my way. I pretty much always do. I’m used to it, this same tussle, over and over, every weekend, every night, for years — for my whole life.

It’s a little bit more intense at the moment, though, here in Melbourne. A week or two ago a woman was shot dead down the street from my friends’ place — but that was in the middle of the day. Really I think Jill Meagher’s death made us all a little crazy. I can’t tell you how awful it was, the whole story on every channel of every medium for a week. I so thought she would be found alive, that it would all turn out to be a big misunderstanding. And then I saw the CCTV footage, saw the way she was standing — that wary, I’ll-hear-you-out, don’t-wanna-provoke, arms-folded stance of women bailed up by men on the street, the stance I can feel now in my flesh memory, in the tension of my shoulders and the twist of my mouth, that I fall into many times in a week or even a day — and my stomach dropped.

It’s unusual, that kind of violence from a stranger, especially towards someone like her — white, cis, professional-class, not homeless, not particularly vulnerable, except in that she was a woman. Most often, as a woman, you have more to fear from the guy who offers to walk you to your car than from anyone or anything else. I got so angry when I first realised that: that chivalry isn’t just kind of annoying and missing the point, but rather is a fucking con, a protection racket, manipulative bullshit that only puts you more at risk. And I realised that very early in life, basically as soon as I was old enough to go out at night without my parents, so I’ve really never allowed men to walk me anywhere — not if they put it like that. We can go someplace together, if I feel like it, but you can’t fucking “walk me home”, that’s not happening, not ever. That feels way more dangerous to me than being alone. But having said that, street violence against women by strangers does of course happen. It’s happened to women I know.

So I get it, that people want to walk me home. And I don’t blame them for their fear, I’m not angry at them, especially not right now. But I hate it, I hate it, I can’t fucking stand it. It’s not that I think it’s condescending, especially not from other women — it’s not condescending to recognise that many women fear for their safety walking home alone at night. And it’s not an attempt to assert my independence, not exactly.

It’s just that — I don’t know. What is violence? Politically speaking, isn’t it the ability to force your will on people, to make them modify their behaviour without giving them anything in return? Or the power backing that ability up, if that’s a meaningful distinction. Even in law, an attacker might never lay hands on you, but it’s considered assault if you have reasonable fear that they could have. I don’t mean that modifying your behaviour because you fear violence is comparable, on the individual level, to actually experiencing that violence. I don’t agree with the rhetoric that we are “all survivors”. There’s a distinction here that’s important, between structural violence and specific violent acts. but I also think they are both ultimately, politically, structurally, violent.

so when I do whatever I would do in a world without violence against women, it doesn’t feel like a gesture asserting my independence, a fuck-you-don’t-talk-down-to-me thing. it feels like the only thing I can do. this is a little bit different to a “don’t blame the victim/potential victim” position, although of course I also think that. I mean it feels like a rational choice. it feels like if I made any other choice, if I curtailed my movement to avoid violence — I would already be a victim of violence. to do whatever the fuck I was going to do doesn’t make me feel like I’m walking into danger. it feels like self-defense.

Sep 28

Anonymous asked: I can't get over point b, I feel like a monster

part of the violence of this society is that only those who are uncritical of it get to engage wholeheartedly in public displays of grief and joy

part of the violence of this society is that there are those who do not have to be aware of the vast disparities between whose deaths are grievable and whose are not, and these people don’t have to be constantly second-guessing their responses — don’t have to be grieving deaths that others think are deserved, or alienated by public grief for conspicously acceptable victims

it makes you feel like a terrible person just for perceiving certain structural violence; like you are the one at fault

having said that, there is a time and a place for everything — I will be pretty unimpressed if someone minimises this horrific tragedy and uses it to build a soapbox to talk about, say, the lack of attention given to Indigenous deaths in custody, just as I was revolted by this guy on facebook talking about “one woman in brunswick is raped and murdered and everybody is all over it, but what about the murder of millions of foetuses every year??”. it’s a matter of basic respect.

but you’re absolutely not a monster for feeling alienated from this public display of grief

really really sad/mad/confused/sad again about jill meagher because a) it’s so so awful and I cried about it this morning b) would I even know about it if she hadn’t been a pretty young white married ABC employee who went missing on Sydney Road, where People Like Us hang out c) sick at heart about having to even think about b), disgusted with my own reflexive cynicism even as I think it’s necessary

Aug 4

speaking of Lolita, there is a collection of published Lolita covers here, and they are almost all jaw-droppingly awful (although I think you could make a case for these: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). but I think I hate this cover of Lolita even more than I hate the ~sexy~ covers. I dunno, those at least you can chalk up to the designer not really knowing what the book is about, but this is clearly an illustration of the bit where the protagonist has taken Lolita away from everyone she knows and gone on the run, and her mother has just died, and she is experiencing constant sexual abuse which is explicitly presented as such, and they’ve made it look like an advertisement for a fun road trip across the USA.

Jul 18

“The discussions that sex workers have, for example, within the Rose Alliance sex workers’ organization, are neither black nor white as they seem in this House. There is often discussion about the so called ‘whore stigma,’ about why you feel [like] an outsider and why you do get the best treatment when you access the social services. A woman who has children and is a prostitute, and therefore a sex worker, or who is in the porn or stripping business is terrified of seeking help. The first thing that happens is that they say to you: You are a bad mother we are going to start by taking your children away from you.”

Frederick Federley, May 12, 2011, member of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament), speaking out in opposition against a bill in the Swedish Riksdag that would double the jail time under the Swedish Sex Purchase Act. Federley was the only member of the Riksdag to vote against the bill, which passed 282 for, 1 against, 66 absent. Maggie McNeill noted at the time:

[J]ust one year ago a Swedish police press release claimed that the ban had actually increased [sex] trafficking in Sweden by making it a more lucrative market, just as prohibition of drugs makes drug dealing more profitable.

What a surprise.

(via letterstomycountry)

(via everythingbutharleyquinn)

May 5

januarydaze:

leslie-feinberg:

STONE BUTCH BLUES
DEDICATION for CECE McDONALD

I have taken back my author rights
to Stone Butch Blues.

I am working on plans for a
20th-anniversary author edition
of Stone Butch Blues
for Spring 2013

A digital multi-media edition will be
available free online.

A not-for-profit, at-cost print edition
will be available for order online,
as well.

During our visit in jail,
I asked CeCe McDonald
if I could dedicate
Stone Butch Blues to her.

I’m thrilled to announce:
She said “Yes!”

When I saw this attached photo
for the first time, it was clear to me,
that this is the dedication photograph!!

More information on
novel publication as it develops.

Soon, I’ll also post information
regarding translations.

FREE
CECE!

wow.

Also Leslie Feinberg has a tumblr, did you know?

Apr 19

[TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting]

liquornspice:

withrevolutionarycries:

liquornspice:

notaskingforpermission:

TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting

WOW, ok. so this is an addition to the photo/article I posted earlier about this cake. Apparently it is more than just edible, it is an art piece that cries out/screams as it is being cut.

The artist is a mixed black woman, Makode Linde, and makes lots of art about race. Putting this cake into context, makes it much more acceptable as a radical piece designed to cause discomfort to the Whites who will cut & consume it. The problem then is not the cake, which simply exists as a tool through which to provoke and showcase lingering racist and colonialist attitudes and practices, but rather those who are comfortable partaking in it.

And I think Linde is a genius now.

More context. I don’t know if I can think that critically about this yet.

the only way this would approach acceptable for me is if the artist is a Khoikhoi/KhoeKhoe woman herself—if not that shit is still mad suspect to me. gore art based on the violent dismemberment of a Khoikhoi woman in order to teach white folks a lesson is not automatically a pass to me.

i already find it extremely suspect the way that many non-South African/non-Khoikhoi/khoekhoe-descended Black women exploit the narrative of Baartman’s life to do their political work as a pan-African example of the barbarism of the European Colonial project. Don’t get me wrong the evils of the European colonial project does need to constantly be (re)exposed however it’s telling and problematic how many folks want to use Baartman’s body *still* and being of the African-diaspora doesn’t automatically make your participation in that system acceptable.

And the artist is actually a man. To make it even more suspect.

context (for the perplexed) (also, it’s pretty horrifying)

(via blackraincloud)

there's our catastrophe

work is its own cure. you have to like it better than being loved. ⚑ ♀

More from the blog A Glasglow Sex Worker on how intrinsically fucked the Nordic end demand model is--couldn't even finish reading this, the violation that Swedish sex workers routinely go through was so vile

for every “feminist” out there who defends the swedish/nordic model.

[TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting]

work is its own cure. you have to like it better than being loved.

⚑ ♀